Mount Alyeska

June 10 Sunday. Today we disembark our ship in Whittier near Anchorage and change to a land tour on our way to Denali National Park.  Today we meet our traveling companions the Rauscher’s from northern California and are taken to the Alyeska Hotel for a restful afternoon.

Alyeska Hotel 

We pass through the Whittier tunnel, which is 2.5 miles long the longest highway tunnel in North America, and the first designed for -40 Fahrenheit temperatures and 150 mph winds. The one-lane tunnel must be shared by cars and trains traveling in both directions, and it usually needs to be aired out in between trips with jet turbine ventilation, another first!. This unique design enables a single lane of traffic to travel directly over the railroad track saved tens of millions of dollars in construction cost.

View from the top of Mount Alyeska

We arrive at the 300 room Alyeska Resort in Girdwood, Alaska, approximately 27 miles from the city of Anchorage. It a sunny day approaching 70 degrees F.  Mount Alyeska is part of the Chugach mountain range and the Alyeska Resort is the largest ski area in the state. There is a tram that ends three-quarters of the way up the mountain and at the top houses the Seven Glaciers restaurant where we have an incredible dinner.

Dinner at Seven Glaciers

Cruising Hubbard Passage

Hubbard glacier.

Saturday June 9.  Today we are cruising to our final destination outside of Anchorage, but we make an important stop at the Hubbard glacier.  It is 75 miles long and 1,350 square miles in area and is the largest tidewater glacier in North America.  It has a vertical wall at the ocean 300 ft tall. It has been advancing for the last 100 years and has had some dramatic events of ice breaking off.

Ice flow from glacier

We get there in the morning and the weather cooperates for a very scenic experience.  We hear the sound as ice breaks off, it sounds like a rifle shot.  There have been chunks of ice break off the size of a 20 story building.

Vertical wine tasting with Cast Winery

We then cruise off on our way to our final destination.  In the afternoon we do a special vertical wine tasting with Cast Winery and begin our packing.  We have a special dinner at Prego an Italian restaurant

Octopus and scallop appetizer

Skagway

Friday June 8. Early in the morning we dock in Skagway. The sun has been up since 3:35 am and the weather is great for the home of the north wind.  This town of 900 residents began in 1887 with the first gold claim and is the northernmost town on the inside passage. The main street has been restored to the false fronted buildings and the boardwalk sidewalks of the late 1800’s.,




We board the  White Pass & Yukon Railroad that climbs from sea level in Skagway to almost 3,000 feet at the Summit in just 20 miles and features steep grades of almost 3.9%. The tight curves of the White Pass called for a narrow gauge railroad. The rails are three feet apart on a 10-foot-wide road bed which meant lower construction costs.


















Building the 110 miles of track was a challenge in every way. Construction required cliff hanging turns of 16 degrees, building two tunnels and numerous bridges and trestles. Work on the tunnel at Mile 16 took place in the dead of winter with heavy snow and temperatures as low as 60 below. The workers reached the Summit of White Pass 1899.




We get off the railroad after clearing Canadian customs and go by bus to the Yukon suspension bridge across the Tutshi River.  The river has wonderful white water.  We then head back down to Skagway re entering the USA. We stop at the Jewell Gardens for lunch and a tour. The land was originally farmed for rhubarb which was eaten to prevent the miners with developing scurvy. It was later developed into a wonderful botanical garden.

We are back to the ship for an early departure.  We have the last of our winemaker dinner by Cast wines. We head back to our stateroom as the sun is setting at 10:15 pm.

Juneau

Thursday June 7. Today we arrive in the capital of Alaska Juneau for some wonderful off ship excursions. Juneau was a part of the gold rush in the late 1800’s. It is rather unusual among U.S. capitals in that there are no roads connecting the city to the rest of Alaska or to the rest of North America. The absence of a road network is due to the extremely rugged terrain surrounding the city so everything has to come in and out by plane or boat. Downtown Juneau sits at sea level, with tides averaging 16 feet, below steep mountains of about 3,500 feet to 4,000 feet.

We travel to the Mendenhall Glacier to see the effects of the last Ice Age on this picturesque valley. We have a guided walk along a gentle forested trail, take in splendid vistas and many visual opportunities, including wildflowers and cascading waterfalls. Then we see breathtaking glacier panoramas and floating icebergs surrounded by snow capped peaks. We get some very helpful photography ideas.

We take a short ride to the harbor to explore the channels and islets of the beautiful Stephen's Passage. We board a boat with large panel windows that offer unrestricted views.These are the only crafts of their kind in Southeast Alaska, custom built specifically for marine wildlife photography. We go whale a sea lion watching with great success and wonderful weather.



Later in the afternoon we return to the ship to sort through our photos from a very enjoyable journey guided by the very interesting guide, Jim who is also a storyteller and various other skills like history and poetry.

Cruising the Endicott Arm

Endicott Arm.

Wednesday June 6. Today is a cruising day and begins with some rolling seas as we have breakfast and listen to some lectures on the history and marine mammals of Alaska.  

Dawes glacier 

Later in the afternoon as the seas calm and the weather is very nice the ship starts down a special place, the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness. It contains 653,179 acres and consists of two deep and narrow fjords: Tracy Arm and Endicott Arm. Both fjords are over 30 miles long and one-fifth of their area is covered in ice. We go down the Endicott arm with considerable floating ice ranging from hand-sized to very large pieces. We encounter Dawes glacier which blocks the rest of the fjord. During the most recent glaciated period, both fjords were filled with active glaciers.

As the ship turns around we have a direct view of the glacier from deck of our room.  We enjoy a glass of wine as we watch the ship pull away from the glacier.  Our food and wine dinner was hosted tonight by Geyser Peak's wine maker. 

Ketchikan, AK

Tuesday June 5.  We arrive in Ketchikan early in the morning for our first day of leaving the ship for sightseeing.  In the morning we walk around the town and in the afternoon we take a boat to see the Misty Fjord.

Ketchikan the Salmon capital of the world has 8,000 residents who welcome ships with its many shops and excursions. It’s economy is based upon government services, tourism and commercial fishing. The Misty Fiords is one of the area's major attractions. It has the world's largest collection of standing totem poles. 

Salmon Capital of the World

Misty Fjords National Monument which is a national monument and wilderness area and part of the Tongass National Forest. It is about 40 east of Ketchikan, comprising 2,294,343 acres. It was originally proclaimed by President Jimmy Carter in 1978 as a National Monument under the Antiquities Act.

Misty Fjords has steep fjords and rock walls jutting 3000ft straight out of the ocean made of light-colored granite, about 50 to 70 million years old which has been sculpted by glaciers that gouged deep U-shaped troughs throughout the monument. Many of the glacial valleys are filled with sea water and are called canals, but they are not man-made in any way; the walls of these valleys are near-vertical and often rise 2,000 to 3,000 feet above sea level, and drop 1,000 feet below it.

Waterfalls plunge into the salt water through narrow clefts or course over great rounded granite shoulders fed by lakes and streams that absorb the rainfall of more than 150 inches annually.

An added treat for us was seeing a female humpback whale and her calf bubble feeding during our It has light-colored granite, about 50 to 70 million years old which has been sculpted by glaciers that gouged deep U-shaped troughs throughout the monument. Many of the glacial valleys are filled with sea water and are called canals, but they are not man-made in any way; the walls of these valleys are near-vertical and often rise 2,000 to 3,000 feet above sea level, and drop 1,000 feet below it. Our crew was very excited as this was the first time this year they had seen whales.

Our ship leaves at 6 pm for an overnight cruise to the Endicott Arm our adventure for the next day.

Vancouver to Ketchikan, Alaska

Early morning on the way Ketchikan AK

Monday June 4. Today is our first experience of a day at sea, as we move from Vancouver to Ketchikan Alaska. There is plenty to do on board or just relax. We attend 3 lectures about the history of Alaska, the sea otters and the history of Russia and their Alaskan settlement. It’s hard to believe but it’s easy to just relax for a day watching the ocean.

High Tea at Sea

We meet up with the winemakers and guests for a reception followed by a wonderful dinner paired with wines from Coppola (yes its the movie maker) who has a destination place in Sonoma County. The winery is represented by the winemaker Humberto Berlanga originally from Mexico City. We had the pleasure of sitting next to him and got to hear about his very interesting life. The food was very nice as were the wines. We will be sailing until the next morning, and it certainly was great for sleeping.

Coppola Wine Dinner

Petaluma to Vancouver, BC.

Well we are off again, this time to Alaska. We start with a short plane ride to Vancouver

BC, a wonderful place we have been before, but for a new experience, cruising to Alaska. We board the Crystal Symphony with 800 other people, 100 of us will be experiencing wines from 4 winegrowers from the dry creek valley in Sonoma County California.

Leaving Vancouver under the Lions Gate Bridge

The ship is wonderful, our stateroom is ready when we check in, so relax a bit, then go to the main dining room for lunch, then a bit of exploring the ship and unpacking before we set sail at 6 pm. We had our our winegrowers reception to meet people and taste some of Mounts recent wines. We have dinner in a unique Chinese fusion restaurant called Silk. We chose warm duck salad, a dim sum sampler, lobster and scallop plate, sea bass and chinese vegetables. Dessert was a 5 spice chinese chocolate cake.